Brian Welch may have started up his business on April Fools’ Day, but its success over the past 20 years has been no joke.

Under Brian and his wife Ruth, UK Industrial Tapes Ltd has rocketed from a small start-up business with three members of staff on Team Valley Trading Estate in Gateshead, to a major supplier of high performance tapes and adhesive products, exporting across the world.

Along with its two sister companies - P.O.S Tapes, which supplies display and accessory products to the Point of Sale market, and hobby and craft company Stix2 - UK Industrial Tapes is now manufacturing from Throckley’s Westway Industrial Estate.

Born in Haltwhistle and brought up in Haydon Bridge, Brian left school and joined the Merchant Navy for two years. Following that, he worked as a salesman with North British Tapes in Killingworth and, from there, the tape business took hold of him and he ended up joining Scottish distributor Vaspac.

There, he started up a North East distribution centre for the business. By the time he left he was Sales Director, and the company had expanded to five centres in the UK.

“I think what kept me in this type of industry is that you don’t know what you are going to be doing from one day to another,” he explained.

“There’s always something to keep you busy and I always quite enjoy that.

“I find it very satisfying to solve a problem for customers.”

Along with working part-time as a midwife, Ruth helped launch UK Industrial Tapes on April 1, 1997, often juggling 20 hours in the health profession with the same - or more - at the business.

The first member of staff aside from Brian and Ruth was warehouse manager Albert Wilson who, at the grand age of 74, still comes in two days a week to help with packing.

“He has that knowledge and expertise, which is important,” said Brian.

“We have got a good young management team and most of the key managers are under 30. I think that’s part of what has helped with growth: they’re really, really good guys and girls.

“That mix is what keeps the business going - you’ve got the knowledge and expertise there as well as bright, young people with new ideas.”

As the business grew, Ruth eventually left her job as a midwife around 15 years ago and joined the team full time. She is now in the role of Sales Director.

It’s a real family affair, with the couple’s son Matthew looking after the glass, glazing, construction and exports side of the business, and their other son Michael, the business’ newest recruit only six weeks ago, working in a purchasing role.

The three parts of the business all have dedicated, specialist sales teams and it now has a turnover of between £6.7m and £7m. 12 per cent of this comes through exports, and through UK Industrial Tapes, adhesive tape for glass, glazing, construction and picture framing is exported throughout Europe and to Australia, New Zealand and America.

P.O.S. Tapes is one of the top three manufacturers in Europe of hang tabs for packaging, and on the Stix2 side of things, the business supplies around 2,500 of the UK’s estimated 3,000 hobby and craft businesses, including internet businesses. They now have a 20,000 sq ft warehouse and 53 members of staff.

“The growth has been astronomical,” said Brian.

“I think we put it down to the fact that we are very, very customer orientated, because without the customers, nobody could get out of bed in the morning - nobody would be here.”

As business owners, Brian and Ruth pride themselves on running a responsible recycling programme and helping out worthy causes - often donating Stix2 products to charities which make their own crafts and sell them on to fundraise.

Outside of the business, the Welchs like to play golf together as a family at Close House golf course in Heddon-on-the-Wall, where they will be going to watch some of the British Masters tournament at the end of the month, and Brian - a big Manchester United supporter - has two season tickets at Old Trafford.